All Fours

all fours, also called seven up, ancestor of a family of card games dating back to 17th-century England and first mentioned in The Complete Gamester of Charles Cotton in 1674. The face card formerly known as the knave owes its modern name of jack to this game. Originally, all fours was regarded as a lower-class game—it was much played by African Americans on slave plantations—but in the 19th century it broadened its social horizons and gave rise to more-elaborate games such as cinch, pitch, smear, and don, which include partnership play, bidding, or additional scoring cards.